Arctic tourists should proceed with caution

Buried deep within the master plan for Kuururjuaq, Quebec's new wilderness park in the mountain valley near Ungava Bay, are a few telling warnings and recommendations for tourists.

The most ambitious hikers will be required to file a detailed itinerary and be "strongly urged" to come armed with a global positioning system "to ensure walking is safe, particularly in dense fog."

Climate changes are having an impact on distribution of plants and animals in the sub-Arctic region, where terrain and weather conditions can be forbidding at the best of times.

But Arctic ecotourism has never been hotter, with national parks sprouting up across the Far North and well-heeled nature lovers everywhere rushing to catch a glimpse of a geyser or a glacier before it's too late, even as their vessels spew fuel and help contribute to greenhouse-gas emissions. Some tour operators tread a fine line, promising minimal impact on the environment and strict carry-out trash policies.

The call of the wild is not without hazards. Last month, 17 British tourists were injured when their cruise ship was swamped by a mammoth wave created when a chunk of ice broke off the huge Hornbreen glacier near Spitsbergen in Arctic waters 500 kilometres north of Norway.

Jim Igloliorte chairs the co-management board between Parks Canada and Inuit from Nunavik and Nunatsiavut at Torngat Mountains National Park Reserve, a 9,700-square-kilometre region that abuts Quebec's Kuururjuaq park. As adventure seekers flock in to experience the Great White North, he said the increased polar bear population is only one of the issues that needs to be ironed out in remote mountainous terrain, where just finding a landing strip or campsite can be an ordeal.

Gary Baikie, a Parks Canada guide at Torngat, said increasing numbers of people are arriving by cruise ships that hold anywhere from 10 to 100 passengers and allow for safe, relatively benign, tourism. For mountain climbers, however, the increased presence of bears raises serious issues Parks Canada will need to tackle.

"Right now, you are not allowed to carry firearms in the park. So with the polar bears that we have, we want to somehow ensure visitor safety."

Most people who travel to a place as remote as Torngat have done their homework, Baikie said. "They'll carry flare guns with them, or bear spray. They are usually prepared for anything, because this is an isolated park. It's going to take us a while to respond to anything, right?"

Still, there's no question the combination of more polar bears and more tourists has altered the equation. "Polar bears aren't used to humans in this park," Baikie said. "In Churchill, Man., they get a lot of tourists and they are used to humans, right? In this park, they are not used to humans. Humans are an oddity to them."

Nothing gets a bear into trouble quicker than curiosity, Baikie said.

"The bears that seem to get themselves in trouble are the young males - just like any other society, I guess."